


Falling into Cupid's Trap

by Jade4813



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Bad Matchmaking, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Matchmaking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:54:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27567073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade4813/pseuds/Jade4813
Summary: A misunderstanding leads to Julie asking Luke to be her date to Homecoming, and Alex and Reggie decide it's a perfect time to play matchmaker...with mixed results.
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 127





	1. Chapter 1

“I can _not_ believe you turned Nick down!” Flynn declared with all the dramatic despair a teenage girl could convey as she flung herself down onto Julie’s bed. The recipient of her disbelief opened her mouth to offer a defense, but her best friend wasn’t having any of it. “You’ve been pining after him for, what? _Forever_ , probably. And when he _finally_ escapes Carrie’s clutches and _asks you out on an actual date_ , you _turn him down_?” She threw Julie a look that called into question the state of her health – both physical and mental – and suggested she might be hanging on by a thread. “Who _are_ you, anyway? I’m not sure I know anymore.”

Julie rolled her eyes at Flynn’s teasing, flopping onto the mattress next to her. “Don’t you think you’re being just a _little_ overdramatic? I did have a crush on him! I do! I did!” Truth be told, she honestly wasn’t sure how she felt about Nick anymore, but it was only because someone else had recently taken over her thoughts. “I just…” Her voice trailed off. She wasn’t sure what she _just_ was, other than lately spending far too much time daydreaming about a boy who was _just_ a little incorporeal.

“You _just_ have a crush on a guy who doesn’t even exist,” Flynn finished for her, never one to mince words.

She winced. “He exists!” she protested weakly, glad that the boy in question wasn’t around to hear this conversation. “He’s just…” She had to stop starting sentences with that word, since it implied a lack of complication that didn’t have any bearing on her current situation.

“Dead,” Flynn offered.

“Undead, really,” Julie corrected her, though that made him sound like a vampire and not a ghost, which was what he was.

Flynn grinned but didn’t let it go. “A past-tense person. The not-so-recently deceased.”

“Existing on another plane of reality!” Julie shot back.

“Existentially challenged.” When Julie simply rolled her eyes again, she sat up and protested, “Oh, come on! That was a good one! The _point_ is, you turned down the boy you – and half the rest of the school – has been crushing on for _ever_ because you have feelings for a guy you can’t even touch!”

Julie dropped her gaze, picking at a loose string on her shirt to avoid having to look at her friend as she confessed, “Actually…I did touch him.”

Flynn gasped loudly, grabbing Julie by the arm. “You did? When? How? And, more importantly, _why didn’t you tell me?_ ” she demanded.

She couldn’t help but laugh at her friend’s excitement. “It’s not that big of a deal!” she lied. It was a _very_ big deal. “It happened a couple nights ago, after the concert. I tried to hug him, and…I could. It wasn’t just him, though. I could touch all of them.”

“Are you still able to, or has he gone all… _ghosty_ again?”

The thread on her shirt might have been the most fascinating thing in the world, given the level of attention Julie was devoting to it. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I haven’t tried.” Not that she hadn’t thought about it. A lot. _A lot_ , a lot. But she’d avoided trying – or even talking to the boys about it – because she was afraid if she tried again and it didn’t work, she’d be crushed. Of course, if she tried again and it _did_ work, she’d probably get all flustered and do something embarrassing. It was one thing to crush on a guy who lived (un-lived?) in her shed when she couldn’t touch him. It was another thing entirely to crush on a guy crashing in her shed who she could actually _touch_ and with whom she sang _all the time_. Pretty closely, in fact. She felt her cheeks heat at the thought.

“But you’ve thought about it,” Flynn replied, as though she was reading her mind. Well, as though reading her mind took any effort at present, which it absolutely did not, because Julie was pretty sure her thoughts were so obvious, they might as well be plastered across a billboard in Times Square with neon lights flashing all around them. Propping her chin on her fist, her friend continued, “You should try. Because _then_ ,” her contemplative moment passed as quickly as it had arrived, chased away by gleeful enthusiasm, “he could be your date at Homecoming!”

Shaking her head, Julie began to protest, “I don’t think that’s a good idea—”

“Of course not! Why would you want to take the boy you’re _totally_ crushing on to the Homecoming dance? It’s a terrible idea. Forget I said anything. Who needs sappy heart eyes when we could go together? Like we do. Every year.”

Even as she prepared to protest, her bedroom door open and her little brother, Carlos, bounded in excitedly. “You’re going to a dance with a _boy_?” he cried, loud enough to be heard on Jupiter. Julie groaned, knowing her dad would have to be deaf not to have heard it.

Just her luck, he was apparently just down the hall – and not, as she had temporarily hoped, in an entirely different solar system – because his head popped around the corner seconds later. “You are? Baby, that’s wonderful!” he said with a wide smile and just a touch of mistiness behind his eyes.

“She has a crush on him too!” her little brother piped up, making Julie wonder if it would really be so terrible if he didn’t live to see his next birthday.

“Do I know him? When am I going to get to meet him?” her dad asked.

This entire situation was spiraling completely out of her control, and she didn’t have a clue what to do about it. “I wouldn’t say – it’s not a _crush_ , really. Flynn and I were just – it was a joke, and—”

Growing more serious, her dad came and sat next to her on the bed. Taking her hand, he said, “There’s no need to be embarrassed. It’s normal for you to have crushes on boys at school and for you to want to go to dances and do all the things that other girls your age do. I know it’s been a rough year, with your mom and all, but I want you to be able to go out and have fun. Your mom would, too.” He paused just a moment and added, “After I’ve had a chance to meet him, of course.”

It wasn’t quite a guilt trip, certainly not an intentional one, but it was the next best thing. Her stomach sinking into the ground, Julie nodded and made a mental note to smother her best friend with a pillow later. “Yeah. Right. Of course. I’ll…um…invite him over, then. I guess.”

Well, it looked like that whole _“avoid talking about that temporarily-able-to-touch-the-boy-she-was-crushing-on-who-was-living-or-not-in-her-shed”_ thing she had planned was going straight out the window. If she didn’t want to break her dad’s heart, it looked like she was going to have to rustle up a date. If she didn’t spontaneously combust from humiliation first.

Several hours later, Julie plastered a smile on her face as she strolled into the shed, attempting nonchalance and failing spectacularly when she tripped on her own feet in the doorway and nearly flace-planted instead. Catching herself at the last moment, she straightened and waved awkwardly at the boys in greeting. “Hey, guys! How’s it going? Doing anything fun? Or are you just…hanging out? Out here?” Heaven help her. It. Was. Getting. Worse.

Alex looked at her like she might be deranged, but Reggie, sweet, oblivious boy that he was, didn’t seem to notice anything amiss in her behavior. “Ooh! Julie! Look! I’ve been practicing!” he cried, grabbing one of Alex’s drumsticks and trying to balance it on the tip of his tongue.

“Don’t do that!” the drummer chided him, making a grab for the drumstick and throwing it a disgusted look before wiping it on Reggie’s sleeve. “Can you even get ghost germs on things when you’re dead?” he mumbled, sounding perplexed, as he fixed the base of his drumstick with a dubious look. Reggie pursed his lips thoughtfully and then licked his hand, as though checking whether ghost saliva was a thing, and then shrugged.

Throughout the entire exchange, Luke laid back on the couch, strumming his guitar and paying no attention to his bandmates. Or to Julie, for that matter, and she didn’t know whether to be relieved or just a little bit piqued at that. Shoving her hands into the back pocket of her pants, she rocked back on her heels and said, “So…um…I have sort of a weird favor.” She’d practiced the words in her mind the entire afternoon, but her tongue refused to form them now. Instead, she changed the subject, forcing a pained laugh. “It’s kind of a funny story, actually. Flynn and I were talking and…long story short…um…mydadthinksIhaveacrushonsomeonesoIneedadatetoHomecoming.” The entire explanation came on it one long breath, the words falling over each other until they made no sense at all.

“What?” Alex asked, not even noticing when Reggie made a grab for his second drumstick so he could continue to practice his new skill.

Sucking in a deep breath, she tried again. “So, um, Flynn and I were talking, and she kind of made a joke, but my dad misunderstood and now he thinks I have a crush on…a boy. He’s really happy about it, and I don’t want to break his heart, so, um, I need a date to Homecoming.”

The three boys before her responded to this announcement in very different ways. Reggie looked confused, though she didn’t know whether it was at her confession or if it was because his pilfered drumstick had fallen to the ground. Alex looked thoughtful. On the couch, Luke’s fingering slipped, hitting an unintentional flat, and he frowned and refused to look her way as he readjusted and tried again.

Julie blushed at both her confession and the fact that she couldn’t stop thinking about Luke and he didn’t even seem to _care_ , but she resolved to pay him no attention, turning her entire focus to Alex instead. “Anyway, I was wondering if, you know…we could touch once. Do you think we could try again?”

“You want to go on a date? With me?” Reggie asked, entirely seriously. “Wow. I-I didn’t know you felt that way about me. I mean, I don’t want to hurt your feelings. I _like_ you. I just don’t know that we’d work out, you know?”

“I’m pretty sure she wasn’t talking about _you_. Her dad wouldn’t buy it, anyway,” Alex growled, his eyes wide, nudging Reggie’s shoulder.

“What?” the other boy asked defensively. Even after Alex nodded pointedly to Luke, ignoring them from his position on the couch, it took several seconds for his meaning to register. “Oh. Ohhhhh,” he said once it had, giving a broad wink that would have lacked any hint of subtlety, if Luke had been paying the smallest amount of attention. Stifling a groan, Julie tried hard not to hide her face behind her hands.

But Alex wasn’t ready to raise the white flag, and so he pressed ahead as he often did in the face of Reggie’s shenanegans and Luke’s apparent disinterest. “That’s – that’s a great idea! I mean, if we can turn solid again. I just…well, I don’t think _I’m_ the right person for this, since, you know…you’re not my type. And Reggie’s…Reggie. But maybe…” On the couch, Luke refused to take the bait, focusing on his idle strumming like the very concept of music had just been invented

After watching his recalcitrant bandmate for a long moment, Alex sighed and turned his attention back toward her. Julie threw him a desperate look, and he shrugged in response. “Then again, maybe it’s a bad idea. What about that guy from school? Nick? I, uh, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I may have _overheard_ you telling Flynn that he asked you out the other day.” Luke missed another note and scowled at the neck of his guitar. “Why don’t you go with him?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess that probably makes sense. He _is_ nice, and I _have_ had a crush on him for—”

“I’ll do it,” Luke announced abruptly, setting his guitar aside as he jumped to his feet. His gaze flickered toward Julie before wandering away again as he shoved his hands into his pockets in an awkward gesture. “If you want. I’ll take you to Homecoming.”

“If you can turn solid again,” Reggie pointed out helpfully, causing Luke to scowl at him. “Otherwise, people will be walking through you all night, and that’ll just be weird.”

“Yeah, right. If I can turn solid again,” he grumbled, his chin ducking. Then, throwing her a quick glance from under the fall of his bangs, he added sheepishly, “If you want to go with me.”

Julie tamped down her swell of elation and excitement and tried to school her features into a nonchalant expression. “Sure! I mean, that’d be great. I guess we should…see if we can recreate what happened the other night, then, huh?” she asked, holding out her hand. Praying he’d be able to take it.

* * *

The boys stuck around for a while, curious to see if their miraculous solidification would be repeated, but it didn’t take long for Reggie to grow restless and impatient, Alex following him not long after. It turned out that watching two people attempt to touch and go right through each other got tedious after a while, so they blinked away, heading to their favorite spot on the beach instead. They often came to this mostly deserted stretch of sand and surf, when Julie wanted her privacy in the shed or when they just got whatever passed for the equivalent of cabin fever in the afterlife. Of course, without bodies, they couldn’t feel the spray of the surf, smell the salt in the air, or sink their bodies into the blanket of fine golden sand. But they could remember what all those things felt like, and those memories brought them peace.

“Do you think they’ll be able to do it?” Reggie asked finally, breaking the silence as they lay back on the beach and stared up at the clear blue sky.

Alex shifted beside him, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. A dog raced by on the beach, running through their intangible bodies as it chased after a disinterested seagull. It felt strange, being walked through like that, but they were more or less getting used to the odd sensation, so the two boys continued their conversation without missing a beat. “I don’t know. Maybe.” He tucked one arm under his head, tapping his fingers in an unconscious rhythm against his chest. “What would you do if you had a body again?”

Reggie considered the question. “I don’t know. Come back here with a whole bag of cheeseburgers and see how many I could eat before I threw up, I guess.” That wasn’t what Alex was asking and he knew it, but it felt dangerous, thinking about his parents and whether he could find them after all this time. Wondering how they’d react to seeing him again. Wishing for things that probably couldn’t – and almost certainly shouldn’t – happen.

Most of the people Reggie had known when he was alive might have pointed out that wasn’t what they meant. They might have pressed for a more meaningful answer, one that Reggie wasn’t ready to even contemplate yet, let alone give. But not Alex. Alex and Luke were his best friends, and they understood him. They were, after all, in the same peculiar situation. So instead of bringing up his parents, Alex grinned. “But no street dogs, right?”

“Man,” he replied with a wistful sigh. “I miss street dogs.” This received a laugh in response, as he knew it would, because he was Reggie and everyone knew Reggie didn’t learn from his mistakes. “What about you?”

“I wouldn’t eat any more street dogs, that’s for sure!” Alex joked before growing more serious. “I don’t know. The way we are now isn’t so bad, I guess. At least there’s Willie.”

Reggie nodded, and the two boys lapsed into silence for a while longer. He had the sun, the beach, and his best friends were happy. All seemed right with the world. What could be better than this? Other than a more permanent state of happiness, perhaps.

“I hope they can,” he mused, bringing the conversation back to its former topic without the assistance of a segue for Alex to follow the train of his thoughts. “They should be together.”

His friend snorted, repositioning himself on the sand like he’d found a rock under his shoulder blade, though of course he wouldn’t feel one even if it existed. “Yeah, right. Except that he’s a ghost.”

This might have seemed like an insurmountable obstacle to anyone else, but not to him. Unlike Alex, who usually thought things through, and Luke, who could _overthink_ things to death, Reggie tended to take things as they were and rarely thought about them much at all. He certainly didn’t waste much time thinking about the future, particularly since their present was still so much of a mystery. “So? A few months ago, you were crying in a black room. Now we’re back in a band, we just played a show at the Orpheum, and we aren’t getting zapped anymore. I don’t see the problem.”

“That’s—” Alex began, before his voice trailed off and he mulled things over a bit. “Actually, you know what? That’s a good point. Sometimes you’re kinda brilliant, Reg.” He didn’t just sound impressed; he sounded downright amazed as he jumped to his feet. “Let’s do it! If Luke and Julie ever figure out how to make him solid again, at least.”

Feeling pleased at this unexpected praise, Reggie followed. “Great!” he agreed readily. Then, after a moment, he added, “What are we doing?”

His friend sighed. “We’re getting Luke and Julie together. It was _your idea_!”

Reggie was pretty sure he’d just commented that they should be together; he hadn’t actually suggested that the two of them take action to make that come about. But now that Alex had latched on to the idea, he was more than willing to take the credit and go along for the ride. He nodded and agreed, “Oh, yeah. Of course.”

“You know, maybe you should let me figure out a plan and just…follow my lead.” Well, that was a relief. The only thing better than getting credit for a brilliant idea he didn’t even know he’d offered had to be getting credit for a brilliant idea without having to come up with a plan to make it happen. He nodded again, and the two boys blinked back to the shed, to watch Julie and Luke continue their quest to touch once more.

Well, Alex watched Julie and Luke try to figure out how to make him corporeal. Reggie grabbed an abandoned drumstick and continued his efforts to master his new skill. _Someone_ had to do all the work around here, after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Julie was preoccupied as she shifted the weight of the book bag slung over her shoulder and headed up her front walk. It had been two days since she’d _kinda_ asked Luke out on a not-really-a-date (though she didn’t _really_ ask him so much as he’d volunteered), and if there was a way to make him physically solid again, they hadn’t found it. At what point should she suggest that they just give up?

She didn’t really _want_ to give up, of course. She wanted to go with Luke to Homecoming. Because they were friends. Not because of any sort of silly, unrequited crush that _absolutely_ had no part in why she’d kinda-sorta roped him into being her date in the first place.

But as much as Julie continued to hope she’d find a way to be able to _touch_ him again, she had to be a little practical. At some point, if touching Luke – let alone making him visible when he wasn’t singing – turned out to be impossible, she’d have to come up with a Plan B. Her dad was expecting her to have a date to Homecoming, and while she might be able to contrive a way to avoid having a need for the two of them to make physical contact, she could hardly explain to her dad that her date was, in fact, invisible. Also dead. Technically speaking.

Yeah, after Reggie’s Great Ghost Fiasco, there was no way on Earth she was going to attempt _that_ conversation.

But it _had_ been two days, and they didn’t seem any closer to a solution, and her dad had only mentioned meeting her date about a _bajillion times_ since Carlos had ratted her out ( _he_ swore it was an accident, but she’d known him since he was a baby, so she wasn’t falling for his innocent act). And so a date was going to have to materialize – either literally or figuratively – and it was going to have to do it soon.

She was so lost in her thoughts that it took her a moment to register the identity of the boy on her front porch as he turned and strolled down the walk toward her, a slight smile on his face. Nick. Her most logical Plan B, if she had to resort to such a thing. Though her heart grew heavy at the thought of asking him.

She didn’t really want to ask Nick to go with her to Homecoming, even if she couched the offer in strictly platonic terms. Not just because she wished she could go with Luke instead, although that certainly seemed like a good reason. But Nick had asked her out, and she’d turned him down because she had feelings for another guy (in a manner of speaking). She couldn’t help but feel it would be unfair of her to ask him out now, knowing that he wanted something from her that she no longer (at least at present) wanted from him. Even if she’d have jumped at the chance a few weeks ago.

She also didn’t want to ask Nick to Homecoming because, in the last few days, she’d found his presence…unnerving, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. Was it just her uneasiness and slight feeling of guilt for turning him down and possibly hurting his feelings? There was no other logical reason why she’d feel the urge to step back when he walked toward her, even as she forced herself to remain still.

His pace was slow and measured, a far cry from the exuberant bound forward that she’d associated with him in the past, but she shrugged that off as his own response to her rejection. For that same reason, she thought nothing of the fact that his smile didn’t reach his eyes as he approached. “I was hoping I’d find you here,” he greeted her in a subdued voice.

Feeling embarrassed and uncertain, Julie shot for “light and casual” and landed in “awkward” territory as she forced a chuckle, “Well, this is my house, so it’s a good place to look!” He didn’t react to her feeble attempt at a joke, so she let her smile fall and cleared her throat, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “So, um, what’s up?”

“I was just wondering – hey, do you want help with that?” he asked, reaching for her backpack. Julie had to resist the urge to recoil away from him and was too distracted with trying to hide both her reaction and her confusion over her reaction to formulate a protest in time. He’d already lifted it off her shoulder and transferred it to his own before she could gather her wits, and so she used his gesture as an excuse to shift slightly away from him again.

“You don’t have to do that,” she protested weakly, trying to find a polite way to extricate first her bag and then herself from this situation.

Nick was unwilling to relinquish his prize. “It’s okay. I’d be happy to carry it inside for you,” he said, throwing her that insincere smile once again.

Inside? Where her dad would see him and probably assume he was the object of her supposed crush? Absolutely not! “Oh, well, I actually wasn’t…I was going to the shed to practice a couple songs,” she lied, latching onto the first excuse that came to mind. “By myself.” Even as the words left her mouth, she wanted to drag them back in. She’d blurted them so he wouldn’t be surprised not to see her incorporeal bandmates, but the thought of being alone with Nick made the tiny hairs stand up on the back of her neck.

What was _wrong_ with her? This was Nick! Maybe she didn’t want to date him right now, but that didn’t change the fact that he was the same sweet, kind, thoughtful guy she’d had a crush on for _ages_. Yes, she’d turned him down, and that made things awkward, but that didn’t explain the sudden, overwhelming dread she felt when in his presence. Ever since the night of the concert, the mere sight of Nick made her want to flee, to put as much distance between them as possible. But that had to be _her_ problem and not _his_ because he was the same guy he’d always been. Heck, he’d gone to her concert to cheer her on that night, and she’d been glad to see him! What was wrong with her _now_ , that this was no longer the case?

Feeling she was being unfair to him, Julie shoved her dread and discomfort aside and focused instead on the fact that this was _Nick_ , her friend, as he replied, “I can join you, if you don’t mind. I like hearing you sing.”

Nick was her friend. Nick was her friend. _Nick was her friend._ She smiled at him. “Yeah, sure,” she agreed, ignoring the way her stomach twisted into knots as she led him around the side of the house. She glanced around as she stepped into the shed, hoping that the boys would be elsewhere, but she had no such luck. All three were inside waiting for her, falling silent when they saw she wasn’t alone.

Her feeling of awkwardness wasn’t improved with an audience, but she tried to ignore her invisible friends as Nick dropped her backpack on the floor. Now that the band was all together, it didn’t seem like a good idea to rehearse a song, after all. “Hey, what happened to you today?” she asked as she remembered that she hadn’t seen him in class.

He shrugged, unperturbed by the question. “I know I shouldn’t have skipped, but I couldn’t take it anymore. Some of those classes last an _eternity_. And believe me, I’d know.”

With an uncertain smile, Julie gave a slight shake of her head. It wasn’t like Nick to skip school. At least, it never had been before. Had he really changed so much in a matter of days, or had she never really known him as well as she’d thought. “Well, you didn’t pick a great day to do it. You missed a pop quiz in math.”

If he’d seemed untroubled by his former confession, he appeared downright bored by this revelation. Instead of taking the opportunity to ponder how a missed quiz was going to impact his final grade, he changed the subject. “You know, you haven’t asked me why I came to see you,” he teased her with a goading smile.

Left off-kilter by his uncharacteristic behavior, she took the bait. “Okay, why’d you come over?”

Nick glanced around the room, seemingly oblivious to the presence of the three boys, who were watching him curiously. Though of course he couldn’t see them, so why shouldn’t he be so oblivious? Instead, he thrust his hands into his jacket pockets and replied, “Actually, I was, uh, wondering if you were planning to go to Homecoming. Because if you were, I thought we could go together. As friends.” His awkward fumbling should have been endearing, but it felt just a little too put on to ring true.

Julie didn’t have long to ponder that anomaly, however, since his reason for being there was worse than she’d feared. She just didn’t know how she could say yes, under the circumstances. Even if they both agreed they were going as “just friends,” she couldn’t take the chance he’d misunderstand, get his hopes up, and she’d end up hurting him all over again.

While she tried to think of a tactful response, Luke stepped up behind Nick and started making funny faces at her over his shoulder, until she had to look away to ensure she wouldn’t inadvertently respond to his antics. Ducking her chin, she tucked her hair behind her ear and said, “That’s – um – thanks, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Because of that other guy you like, right?,” At this, Luke looked surprised, his gaze darting towards her, and she felt a blush heat her cheeks. “Is it one of those guys in your band?”

“Wha-a-a-a-a-at?” she asked, drawing out the word like it was a ludicrous suggestion, even as her voice hit a note almost a full octave above her usual tone. “O-of course not! I don’t – I mean, they’re just – they’re the _last_ guys in the world I would – I-I’ve honestly never even thought about them like that!” she lied through her teeth.

Apparently no longer interested in teasing Nick (or teasing her about Nick), Luke’s face grew impassive and he moved away, taking a seat between Alex and Reggie on the couch. Julie wished Nick would leave so she could tell him that it wasn’t true, but how could she confess to her lie without him growing suspicious? It wasn’t like either of them could do anything about her silly little crush. They still couldn’t touch, and even if they could, he’d still be a ghost! Knowing her feelings wouldn’t do anything but make things awkward between them. Even worse, it could cause tension that could tear the entire band apart. Better she keep her inconvenient emotions to herself, all things considered. Even if he shared her feelings – and she had no reason to suspect he did – it didn’t change the fact that one of them was living and the other one was…well…not.

Nick reached out and rested his hands on her shoulders, looking deeply into her eyes. “Well, if he ever lets you down, you know where to find me,” he said. She was about to assure him that yes, she certainly did, even though she privately knew she’d never make that call, but then he drew her into a hug. She stiffened in his embrace as he said, “ _I’ll_ always be here for you.”

It was such an odd comment, but he didn’t explain. Instead, he released her abruptly and turned to leave with a smooth, confident swagger. Nonplussed, Julie watched him leave, barely registering Reggie’s words when he said, “That was weird. When he hugged Julie, I could swear he was looking right at us.”

“Of course he wasn’t,” Alex reassured him.

“He can’t see us, remember?” Luke added.

Reggie sounded a little defensive when he replied, “I know! But…I could swear he was anyway.”

* * *

Another day passed with no apparent progress on Alex’s plan to get Julie and Luke together. That wasn’t a surprise, since he could hardly get them together if they weren’t able to touch, and they hadn’t yet found a way to replicate that miraculous event. He could tell Julie was on the verge of giving up on the attempt, and their repeated failures had made Luke surly and taciturn when she wasn’t around. It was a good thing he was already dead, or his bandmates would be tempted to kill him.

But Alex wasn’t quite ready to throw in the towel. He just didn’t know what he could do to help the situation along. He’d tried tracking down Willie to see if he had any thoughts on the matter, but the other boy had been avoiding him ever since he’d unwittingly played a part in leading the three boys into Caleb’s trap. Alex wondered how much of Willie’s avoidance stemmed from his fear of what Caleb might do if he caught the two together and how much of it was due to his sense of guilt. At their last meeting, Alex had tried to make it clear he held no grudge against his first real friend (and, he hoped one day, boyfriend) in the afterlife. But that didn’t seem to matter.

Perhaps that was why he was so focused on getting Luke and Julie together. It took his mind off his own failed love life. That it would also bolster his friend’s mood – hopefully giving him someone to lean on during the upcoming holidays, when Alex knew he would watch his parents grieve for his loss from afar.

Pushing such maudlin thoughts aside, Alex popped into the shed, eager to check the progress of the Great Julie and Luke Experiment. (He really had to come up with some kind of cool name for this entire operation at some point.) To his surprise, he found that Julie and Luke had drifted off to sleep together on the couch. To his greater surprise, he realized that Julie had fallen against Luke’s side, her head propped against his shoulder. _And his body was supporting her._

He didn’t mean to make a noise, but me must have done so because the two jerked awake, Luke turning incorporeal again the moment he returned to consciousness. Julie wasn’t quite alert yet, and she wasn’t expecting the sudden disappearance of her support system, so she let out a loud squawk of dismay as she passed through his body, falling hard into the couch cushions. Her head hit the armrest with an audible thud, and she winced as she sat up, rubbing the injured area.

“What’s going on?” Reggie asked, appearing from out of nowhere.

“They did it!” Alex yelled in excitement, resisting the urge to jump up and down.

“Did what?” Julie asked irritably, still pressing her palm against her head. “We didn’t do anything.”

Could they really not know? “He was solid again!” he cried, watching as the two looked at each other askance.

“No he wasn’t,” she said in a dubious voice.

Luke sounded just as uncertain when he added, “Was I?”

If he thought it would do any good, Alex would have banged their heads together. Unfortunately, since they didn’t seem to believe him when he said he could have done just that a few moments before, this temptation would have to go unfulfilled. She’d just go right through him again. “You were. Trust me. When I came in here, Julie had her head on your shoulder.”

For the sake of his plan, it was equal parts frustrating and encouraging when his revelation caused Julie to press her lips together and turn her head away from Luke, staring at a spot on the far wall so he couldn’t see the expression on his face. On the one hand, Alex wanted to scream that they’d managed to recreate Luke’s prior moment of miraculous corporeality. On the other hand, if they could just get past this minor issue, it bolstered Alex’s suspicion that there was more between them than they were willing to admit.

Reggie piped up again. “How’d you do it?”

“I don’t know!” Luke admitted, sounding frustrated.

“If you ask me, you’re trying too hard,” Reggie suggested. “You didn’t think about it this much last time.”

That was right. When they’d turned solid before and joined in a group hug, breaking the seal Caleb had placed upon them, it hadn’t been this hard. Heck, they hadn’t even realized they’d done it until Julie and Luke were hugging goodbye.

“Reggie’s got a point.” Luke looked at Alex like he’d just shot his dog. “Maybe try to not think about it so much.”

“Think about it without thinking about it,” Reggie added, causing Alex to sigh in exasperation. He’d been doing so well.

“You realize that doesn’t make any sense, right?” Julie asked, her eyes narrowed.

Beside her, Luke shrugged. “It’s Reggie,” he said, as though that was sufficient explanation. And, to be fair, it probably was. “Okay, so…think about it without thinking about it.”

“Right. That sounds easy. I’ll just—” she began, making a wide gesture with her arm that ended with her placing her hand on top of Luke’s. Where it remained. Their breath cut off in a soft gasp when Julie and Luke realized that their hands weren’t passing through each other as usual.

Julie kept her attention locked on the hand beneath her own. His skin was warm to the touch. That was curious, wasn’t it? Shouldn’t a ghost – even one with such inexplicable solidity – be cold? Afraid she’d do something to break the spell, she remained frozen, even as Luke slowly shifted his hand beneath hers to link their fingers together.

“I knew it!” Alex crowed, leaning over to slap Luke hard on the shoulder. Julie jerked at the sound of the impact. As before, Luke’s solidity seemed to be infectious – as long as he was touching her, at least.

“So what do we do now?” Luke asked, looking between them.

“I know! _Run!_ ” Reggie yelled, grabbing Alex by the arm and giving it a hard yank as he raced toward the door. Alex stumbled and almost fell, following more by instinct than conscious intent. Once they were outside the shed, Reggie slammed the door shut and flipped the latch to lock it.

“Wait, what—” Alex began, confused.

“They’re locked in together!” he offered as though it was some sort of explanation. When this seemed insufficient, he added, “Haven’t you ever played Spin the Bottle? We lock the two of them in a room together, and they _have_ to admit their feelings for each other before we let them out!”

This logic was almost too much for him as he heard Julie bang on the other side of the door, calling out for the two of them to open it up. “First of all, no, I haven’t. Have you? Because I don’t think that’s how it’s played. And second of all, that’s really not going to work. You do remember that Luke—”

“ _What the hell, Reggie_?” Luke yelled, appearing next to them. “What’d you do that for?”

“—is still a ghost,” Alex finished with a sigh.

“Oh. Right,” Reggie replied, sounding disappointed. “Sorry. I was just—"

“—so excited to be solid again, he wanted to see what he could do!” Alex finished for him smoothly, afraid that he’d clue Luke in to their scheme. “He just didn’t think things through.”

It wasn’t a great explanation, but it was apparently good enough, because Luke seemed mollified. With a sigh that was equal parts exasperation and affection, he gave Reggie’s shoulder a nudge and said, “I get it, but do you wanna let Julie out now?”

Reggie nodded, reaching for the latch, but his hand went straight through it. They’d turned intangible again. It took a minute or so for him to be able to set Julie free, since it took considerable focus for the boys to move objects in their current state and their newest experience with physical bodies had left them all feeling somewhat drained.

Once the door was opened once more, explanations were given, and tempers were soothed, the four of them returned to their earlier excitement that their experiment had been a success. They still didn’t know how long they could maintain their physical forms – let alone why they’d could turn solid in the first place – but it was thrilling nevertheless. While the other three speculated on the cause and potential duration of this strange phenomenon, arguing about when they should try again, Alex remained silent, making plans of his own. Now that they’d proved that Julie and Luke could touch again, it was time to put the next phase of his plan into action.


End file.
